The International Freestyle Wrestling Tournament dubbed as ‘Stepan Sargsyan’ kicked off on 25 June, 2016 in Vanadzor of Republic of Armenia where Reza Atri (57kg) of Iran managed to down the host country rival by technical fall in the first round. Atri later defeated Ukraine’s Taras Markovic 9-6 in order to reach the semi-final round where he conceded an 8-0 defeat against the Armenian freestyler being led to the repechage round. The Iranian wrestler failed to overcome his Russian rival and landed in the fifth place.
Competing in 65kg weight category, Seyed Ahamd Mohammadi breezed past Artur Baghdasaryan of Armenia 12-1 in the first round before losing to Narek Sirunyan 4-10 dropping out of the tournament.
In the same weight group, Iran’s Meysam Nasiri struck an off draw in the first round while he hammered Russia’s Ivan FIlipov 8-2. In the next round, Nasiri overcame the Georgian and Armenian rivals both 10-0 before reaching the final round. The Iranian wrestler’s battle against Alan Gogayev of Russia tied up at 5-5 while he finished runner-up due to having received more warnings.
Amir Mohammadi (97kg) prevailed over the Guatemalan and Armenian freestylers both 10-0 in the first two rounds on road to the semifinals where he overwhelmed Georgia’s Omar Gusoshvili, Europe’s U23 champion, to secure a place in the final round. Mohammadi conceded a bitter defeat against Georgy Ketoyev, a Russian naturalized Armenian freestyle wrestler, and won the silver medal.
The international sportive event has attracted national teams from Armenia, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany, France, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Iran, Iraq, Russia, Uzbekistan, Greece, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Turkmenistan, Italy, Turkey, Poland, Bulgaria, USA, China as well as Moldova.
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